1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic storage memory card or disk and a laser reader/writer interface for said card.
2. Description of Related Art
Since the early 1980""s, the use of plastic credit card styled computer devices to store data has expanded to encompass a variety of applications, including personal identification, security, banking, telephone cards, debit cards, and storage of personal medical records. These credit card styled devices come in the form of xe2x80x9cswipexe2x80x9d type cards and xe2x80x9csmart cardsxe2x80x9d. Swipe cards have a magnetic strip or bar code strip mounted on a side of the card and are capable of storing approximately 20-30 k bytes amounts of digital data. The swipe card passively stores the information on the card, which can be read using a optical scanning device or magnetic reader. Applications of the swipe card are limited due to the relatively small amount of digital data which can be stored on the card, and the card""s inability to accept new data or updated information from a card reader, as in the case of an interactive debit, or smart, card.
Smart cards are capable of not only data storage and retrieval, but can interact with an interface to add new data or delete stored data. The smart card is primarily designed with a computer chip built into the card which serves as the main storage and retrieval media. The development of the Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (xe2x80x9cEEPROMxe2x80x9d) chip made this technology feasible about 10 years ago. The use of EEPROM and other computer chip media has allowed the memory storage capacity of the smart card to increase substantially over the swipe card to approximately 32-500 kilobytes of stored information. Most smart cards rely on these relatively large, expensive EEPROM chips to store and retrieve digital data while interacting with a host computer or scanner. A key design feature of smart cards includes the ability of the card to receive electrical power and timing signals from a card reader during the transfer of data between the card and the reader, all without direct, physical contact between the storage media on the card and the reader.
Smart cards built with EEPROM and computer chips are well known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,798,322, and 4,795,898 disclose personal memory cards and readers. Electrical circuitry is mounted on the cards to allow the EEPROM to receive electrical power and facilitate the transfer of data to and from the EEPROM without direct ohmic electrical contact.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,295 discloses a smart card device which is designed from several layers of plastic material and has integrated circuitry sandwiched in between the layers of plastic. A computer memory chip is used as the means of storing and retrieving digital data and electrical power is required to transmit and retrieve data to and from the smart card.
The use of an EEPROM or other computer chip technology on a smart card requires some type of wireless transfer mechanism between the reader and the card in order to transmit electrical power to the card and facilitate the transfer of data. The need for electrical power on the card and the required electrical circuitry can make this type of card not only costly, but bulky and heavy. Furthermore, relatively expensive and specialized readers and writers are required in order to interface with the smart card.
Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a smart card which does not require electrical power on the card to retrieve, store or write data to or from the card.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a smart card which does not rely on a computer chip, EEPROM, or other microprocessor component as the data storage medium on the card.
A further object of the invention is to provide a smart card which facilitates binary data storage using laser and optical reading and writing technology.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a smart card which does not require any electrical circuitry, contact pads or cladding on the card for digital data transmission to or from the card.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a smart card which is extremely thin, lightweight and less subject to mechanical breakage.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a smart card with a storage media suitable for dense data tracks and increased storage capacity.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a smart card which has a minimum storage capacity of 100-200 megabytes of digital data.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a smart card which can be erased and re-used.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a optical reader/writer interface for formatting, writing data to, retrieving data from, and erasing and re-writing data onto the smart card of the invention.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.
The above and other objects, which will be apparent to those skilled in the art, are achieved in the present invention which relates, in a first aspect, to an apparatus for storing or retrieving digital data to and from a data storage device carried on a card by an individual. The apparatus comprises: a housing for receiving the card which has accessible on a surface a data storage device containing medical record data; a data transfer head adapted to transfer data between the card and a connector mounted on the housing; a driver adapted for x-y direction movement of the data transfer head with respect to the surface of the data storage device on the card; and a controller adapted to direct movement of the data head with respect to the surface of the data storage device in x and y directions to transfer digital data to or from the card through the connector.
In the preferred embodiment, the data storage device on the card is laser storage media and the data transfer head is a laser data transfer head. It is also preferred that the driver is adapted for z direction movement of the data transfer head with respect to the surface of the data storage device.
The apparatus may also include a fixture in the housing adapted to hold the card in a stationary position during data transfer, and it is preferred that the card have locator notches and the fixture have tabs to engage the locator notches to secure the card in a desired position in the fixture. It is also preferred that the fixture be mounted on a driver adapted for x and y direction movement to facilitate x and y direction movement of the storage media under the data transfer head.
It is preferred that the controller of the apparatus be adapted to direct movement of the data storage device under the data head in x and y directions.
It is also preferred that the card of the apparatus have a data storage device containing digital data accessible on a surface of the card. The card may have an optical data storage media on a surface which contains digital data, or a silicon graphite storage media on a surface which contains digital data. It is most preferred that the card have a laser data storage media on a surface which contains digital data. The laser data storage media may have a clear protective coating over it. In the preferred embodiment, a retractable protective cover protects the laser data storage media.
The apparatus may further include a sensor adapted to detect the insertion of a card into the housing. The sensor communicates with the controller to direct the movement of the data head to the surface of the data storage device to transfer digital data to or from the card.
In a preferred embodiment, the data transfer head and driver are adapted to detect the x-y location of the data transfer head with respect to the surface of the card. The data transfer head and driver may also be adapted to detect the x-y location of the data storage device with respect to the data transfer head.
It is also preferred that the driver be adapted for z direction movement toward and away from the surface of the data storage device on the card and that the data transfer head and driver are adapted to detect the x-y-z location of the data transfer head with respect to the surface of the card.
In a second aspect, the present invention relates to a method of storing or retrieving digital data to and from a data storage device carried on a card by an individual which comprises:
providing a card reading apparatus comprising, a housing for receiving a card having accessible on a portion of a surface thereof a data storage device containing digital data, and a data transfer head adapted to transfer data between said card and a connector mounted on the housing, the data transfer head being mounted on a driver adapted for x-y direction movement over the surface of the data storage device on the card;
moving the data transfer head in x-y directions over the portion of the surface of the card containing the data storage device; and
transferring data between the data storage device on the card and the connector.
The method may also include moving the data transfer head in a z direction over the portion of the surface of the card containing the data storage device to transfer said data.
In a preferred embodiment, the method includes moving the portion of the surface of the card containing the data storage device in an x-y direction under the data transfer head.
It is preferred that the data is transferred optically between the data storage device and the card.
The method may also include storing the x-y location of the data transfer head with respect to the card for locating desired data on the data storage device, and it is preferred that the method include moving the data transfer head in a z direction over the portion of the surface of the card containing the data storage device to transfer the data and storing the x-y-z location of the data transfer head with respect to the card for locating desired data on the data storage device.
The method may further include sensing the insertion of the card into the housing, and automatically moving the data head to the surface of the data storage device to transfer digital data to or from the card.
In another embodiment the method includes formatting address tracks on the card with the data transfer head.
In yet a third aspect, the present invention relates to a method of storing or retrieving digital data to and from a data storage device carried on a card by an individual comprising the steps of:
a) providing a card reading apparatus comprising a housing for receiving a card having accessible on a portion of a surface thereof a data storage device containing digital data and a data transfer head adapted to transfer data between the card and a connector mounted on the housing, the data transfer head being mounted on a first driver in the housing adapted for x-y-z direction movement over the surface of the data storage device on the card;
b) providing a sensor in the card reading apparatus adapted to sense when the data storage device is inserted into the card reading apparatus;
c) generating a wake-up signal to a microprocessor unit that the data storage device has been inserted into the card reading apparatus;
d) generating x-y-z location signals to a controller to position the data transfer head over a predetermined position on the data storage device;
e) reading digital data from the data storage device; and
f) writing digital data to the data storage device.
It is preferred that the method further comprise the steps, between steps (c) and (d), of:
(i) sending x, y and z direction feedback signals from the data transfer head to a microprocessor adapted to receive and translate the feedback signals; and
(ii) repeating step (d) so as to provide more accurate positioning of the data transfer head and data storage device.
It is also preferred that the method further comprise the steps of mounting the data storage device in the housing on a second driver adapted for x and y direction movement to facilitate x and y direction movement of the data storage device under the data transfer head, with the controller controlling the x-y position of the data storage device relative to the data transfer head.